Weird Days Before Us
by Ava Miranda Dakedavra
Summary: I raise my head and arch my eyebrow at him. He is indeed grinning. Stupid jerk, tormenting me with my own hippo. He will pay...someday. I'll turn his own hair lavender, which is a very girly color. I tell him this and he beams. Stupid Potter...
1. Quidly the Lavender Hippo

"It's no big deal."

Easy for her to say.

"I mean, honestly, it was kinda funny."

Hmph.

"C'mon," she cracked a smile, her American accent popping through, "You know that was freaking hilarious, Lily."

I smiled a little, only encouraging Rylie as her boyfriend walked into the Heads Common Room, Jeremy suppressing laughs as he tried to analyze my face. Finally he started laughing extremely hard, looking up at me after he got his breath.

"I can't believe you did that!" Jeremy grinned.

I grinned back, only I seem a little less sure about it.

But then I feel bad when the door opens and slams shut.

"_Evans…_" somebody growls out.

I freeze.

Oh Merlin.

He's going to kill me.

Bugger.

"Sirius!" James and Rylie both scream, Rylie rushing in front of me and then James twisting to block Sirius's view.

"SIRIUS!" Remus screams, rushing forward to protect me too as he comes in, abandoning the books we need to study with.

Huh.

I thought they were _his_ friends?

Anywho….

"I'm killing her, I will _kill_ her," Sirius growls out.

I think I manage a very pitiful 'eep' as a retort.

"BLACK!" Rylie screams, pulling out her wand, "I swear, I will kick your ass all the way to Dumbledore's office if you even try!"

I look over at Jeremy, who is on the couch and looking quite amused at our little scene. I nudge Rylie and point this out to her, telling her that we should charge for popcorn. This only makes him grin more as she rolls her eyes and ignores him.

Stupid Ravenclaw.

Shouldn't even be dating Rylie.

Not that I don't like him or anything.

Nor am I saying that she's not smart enough to date a Ravenclaw.

I'm just saying that a relative of Potter shouldn't be dating my best friend.

But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about Sirius Black wanting to off me for something I didn't even do….

On my own free will, anyway.

He made me. He gave me coffee – which he _knows_ makes me do very stupid things – and made me. He convinced me that I needed to do that. Yes. Let Black kill _him_.

"So, what, you can't handle a prank targeted at you?" Remus was frowning at him.

Sirius paused before glaring at the lot of them, even poor innocent Jeremy. In a way, Rylie was innocent too, being a bystander. She's like my policewoman. Guarding me from psychopathic homicidal maniacs. Thank you for serving our country, Rylie, even though you're not from it.

"Alright, Padfoot, chill," James is trying to calm him down before a piece of the goop drips down into his eye.

I mean, it's no big deal.

I only turned his hair a little bit pink.

Alright, so, James the-toerag Potter is Head Boy, while I, Lily Evans, am Head Girl. We are forced to share a dorm, his room _waaaay_ over there and my room _waaaaay_ over here. Since Rylie, my best friend who was born in England but grew up in America, started dating Jeremy, I have been inclined to at least _try_ to be nice to Potter, seeing as Jeremy is Potter's cousin. I don't even know Jeremy's last name, so I just assume that it's Potter as well.

But it's been hard.

Because, see, James is an idiot and thinks I'm secretly in love with him – which I'm not – and asks me out every chance he gets.

And then there's this little war my brain has been having recently, one half being the _normal_ side, telling me that I hate Potter in all ways possible, and the other half being the hormone driven side. That side doesn't need any further introduction.

Hormone driven side plus coffee plus Potter convincing me to prank Black equals my life being threatened.

Let's put that in numerical form, shall we?

/3 + …coffee + …J0m35 = X_X

…I know that wasn't very impressive.

But I have an excuse.

I'm currently hiding behind the couch.

Yes. I have just magically flown over the couch – and Jeremy – to hide from a crazy homicidal younger-male-version of Mrs. Black with bright pink hair. Or maybe a male version of Sirius's sister.

…

It's the caffeine, I swear, I didn't take any drugs.

…

I'm not even sure if he has a sister. I know he's got a brother who's in Slytherin.

Anyway – now to sneak off to my room. Quietly now, don't hit that squeaky floorboard.

"OI! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING, EVANS!"

"SIRIUS!" several people yelled at him.

But I was too busy running for my life to go hide underneath my bed, clutching my stuffed hippo.

And now that's exactly what I'm doing.

Oh wait….

James got me this hippo. Last week. I chucked it underneath here. Hmmm. It still smells like him. Weird. Potter actually smells nice.

"Its okay, Lily, Remus and Jeremy got him out of here," he says.

"Your friend's a…wait, hold on, I'm trying to remember the British equivalent for it," Rylie tells him.

"I'm not coming out," I tell them, holding the hippo tighter and making a cloud of James-smell attack my nose.

"Fine, we're coming in," Rylie says, my door already opening. Her and James's feet stop once they're in my room.

"Err…Lily? Where are you?" James asks.

Oho, wouldn't he like to know?

Not a sound, Evans.

Man, it's dusty under here.

Oh no.

_Aaaah - !_

"_Choo!"_ I squeak. I hate my sneezes. They're girly little squeaks. Rylie sneezes normally. I freakin' squeak. Life's unfair.

Rylie sighs, "Are you really hiding under your bed from the mutt?"

I flick the hippo's ear. It's a lovely lavender color and very soft and cuddly. "Nooo."

"So…" she says, "You're just underneath there…."

That sounds like I'm crazy, "…Yes."

"…For no reason?"

That sounds like I'm insane, "…Yes."

My hippo needs a name. Something cute that fits him. Quidly. That's his name.

"Lily, quit acting like a bloody toddler," she tells me, strangely sounding British. She's been hanging around us too much.

James sits down next to my bed and I glare at his knee.

"Lily…" he says gently, "I know you're mad at me."

"No!" I gasped sarcastically, only I suck in a mouthful of dust and begin coughing.

"Why would she be mad at you?"

"I…gave her coffee and convinced her to prank Sirius…" he admits.

She gasps, "You idiot!"

"Tell her it was intentional," I add.

She flings something at him, "You hate her don't you?"

"On the contrary," he says smoothly, "I'm very much in love with her."

I throw Quidly at him. I'm sorry, but I had to. The prick needed it. And Quidly's not the prick.

"What the - ?" he starts, picking up Quidly and making me pout, since I was just about to reach over and bring him back to apologize to him. Now he'll never know I'm sorry. "Hey, it's that hippo I got you last week!"

"You got her a hippo?" Rylie asks, "Wow, such a romantic you are, James."

"I know," he sounds like he's grinning before he pauses, holding Quidly underneath the dust ruffle, "You want 'im back?"

"I hate you," I tell him. If I say no, then I don't get Quidly back. And if I say yes, then that will tell the prick that I like something he gave me. And that just certainly won't do. So Quidly has been sacrificed. My poor baby lavender hippo. In the clutches of a toerag. It makes me cry. Sniff, sniff.

James chuckles, "Do not. But, seriously, Lily, do you want him back?"

I glare at his hand and mumble, "Yes."

Quidly disappears back into the outside world, "Then come get 'im."

I growl and glare at his knee again.

…I want my hippo.

I push myself on my stomach out, glaring at Potter and ignoring the disappointed look on Rylie's face. I sit across from him, holding out my hand.

"Gimme Quidly," I tell him.

"Quidly?" James repeats with a smile before giving me back my cute ickle hippo. I clutch him to my chest.

…The _hippo_.

Oh wait. Oh crap. What has he done? Now Quidly has been rescented by the toerag! The smell is now ten times stronger!

_And it still smells good!_

I hate him.

With a passion.

"Lily," Rylie reminds me that she's there, "Believe it or not, you need to apologize to Padfoot."

I freeze before leaning back my head to look at her, "Hypocrite."

Ha.

Ha ha.

I called her a hypocrite while I'm holding a hippo.

Ha.

Ha ha.

"I agree with Lily –" James starts.

"Oh yeah, _there's_ a shocker," she snorts. Her nostrils get very big from this angle when she does that.

"I want s'more coffee," I announce. My buzz was wearing off.

Suddenly they jump up and barricade the door.

Tcht.

I hate them.

"No more coffee," Rylie glares at me, "Or else you really will die today."

"Will not!" I cry out.

"You will too."

"Will not!" I pout and cross my arms over my chest, Quidly hanging limply from my hand.

James starts smiling, although he's fighting it down.

…Oh….

I uncross my arms and go back to frowning. She crosses hers and proceeds to becoming intimidating.

"I'm not scared of you," I tell her.

"You should be," she says calmly before quickly grabbing Potter's arm and throwing him at me and slipping out of my room as she locks my door.

…Crap.

"I'm very sorry!" she lies, "And I'm only doing this because I love you!"

James gasps, "Rylie! What will Jeremy say?"

"Talking to Lily," she sounds like she's frowning.

He thinks about this for a moment before purring loudly, making sure she hears. I make a disgusted sound with her before throwing Quidly at him again.

"Just preparing you for my family, Rylie!" James announces as he easily catches my hippo, "Seeing as though Jeremy should be proposing to you any day now!"

"WILL NOT! TOO YOUNG!" Jeremy yells. Hmm. When'd he get back in?

"Oh cousin – just admit it that you marrying Rylie is inevitable at this point?"

"Shut up," he says.

"Or what? You'll tell my mother?" he chuckles.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'll do."

"Hmm," he hums now, "That'd hurt you more than it'd hurt me, seeing as she wants to help plan the wedding."

There's a pause – no doubt Jeremy and Rylie are sharing looks – before two groans are heard.

I sigh, "Why must you be a prick, Potter?"

"Why must we play this game, Evans?"

"I hate you," Jeremy tells him before walking off. Rylie gives a short laugh before following him.

"Wait, wait," I say frantically, "Rylie – Rylie come back!"

"Nope!" she then gives a very maniacal sounding laugh.

…Well…

…That's what it sounded like to me. It was probably just a regular sounding laugh to Potter, seeing as he is now perfectly content with swinging my hippo from his hand as we are trapped in my room.

…

Now he's examining it, seeing if I poked any needles in him or something.

Tcht.

I'd never do that to Quidly.

That's what my James-Potter-Voodoo-Doll is for!

…Kidding. I was _kidding._

"So you really like this thing, huh?" he asks as he squints into Quidly's black glass eyes.

"Maybe," I mutter.

Now, James Potter didn't just outright give me the thing. I woke up one morning and opened my door, only to step on Quidly. Needless to say, I freaked out for a second before realizing that it was a stuffed toy. And then I saw the crumpled up note that had his name written on it.

…Quidly went flying under my bed and had stayed there until today, where he rescued me from the terrors of Sirius Black. Such a forgiving little hippo. And thusly, I forgive him for smelling like Potter.

Potter only grins more, "Uh-huh. So you do like him."

"Maybe," I say. _Leave Quidly alone!_

He frowns now, "So you don't like him."

I want to say that I hate the little thing but – obviously – I don't. And if I say that, then my hippo will leave me. I'd be a widow.

"…Maybe," is my only response.

He arches an eyebrow at me before leaning forward on his knees, flattening Quidly's arm slightly. My hippo! He's crippling it! I'm going to have a disabled hippo!

"Then why'd you name it, Lily?" he asks.

…Why did I name it?

"It needed a name," I respond. Oooh, clever.

"Uh-huh," he hums again, "Why'd you name it Quidly?"

I shrug, "It fit." A cute little name for a cute little lavender nice-smelling hippo. I mean – terrible-smelling. Yuck. He'd have to go in the washer. Yes, that's what…I meant to say…earlier…yes.

"Quidly," he muses, "_Quid_ly."

"Yes…?" I say skeptically. Where on Earth is Potter going with this?

"_Quid_ly. _Quid_ditch." I look over in horror at him and he grins.

"Admit it, Evans," he holds Quidly out just inches from my arm span, "You like the hippo."

I pout and look over at Quidly's face before sighing and dropping my head, "I like the hippo."

Something soft is now in my lap. I open my eyes and see Quidly sitting there, smiling up at me through my tunnel of hair.

"See?" Potter sounds like he's grinning, "All you had to do was say it."

I raise my head and arch my eyebrow at him. He is indeed grinning. Stupid jerk, tormenting me with my own hippo. He will pay…someday. I'll turn his own hair lavender, which is a _very_ girly color. I tell him this and he just beams. Stupid Potter and his stupid, charming grin. I've come to the decision on who I hate most at this very moment.

"I hate Rylie."

Oho, thought it was Potter, did you? Ha! No! Amazingly, Potter is in a very close second today. Rylie is the one who trapped me with him. Dumbledore would be in third place for making him Head Boy.

"Why?" he asks, still smiling, "Because she stuck you in here with me?"

"Yes, that's exactly why," I frown.

He just starts laughing, actually ending up on his back and grinning up at me.

"What's so funny?" I ask him.

He snickers again, "Two things, Love."

"Don't call me 'Love'."

He smiles and rolls his eyes, "For one thing – you keep pretending like you hate me, when I _know_ that you don't. In fact, I know a lot of things about you."

"What do you _know_ about me, Potter?" I glare.

"I know that you love rainy days, but you're terrified of thunder storms," he begins.

"Rylie could've told you that."

He doesn't falter, "I know that you're terrified of Friday the Thirteenth because you think something bad always happens to you."

"It does! I met _you_ on a Friday the Thirteenth." Okay, no I didn't. But it just helps me prove my point.

"I know that you cover your actual feelings with carefully planned out sarcastic comments, but only when _I_ am around."

I stare at him like he's got a unicorn horn sticking out of his forehead before glaring at him again, "And the second reason?"

He starts laughing again, "Are you a witch or aren't you?"

I stare at him again before blinking and grabbing my wand, pointing it at the door and saying, "Alohamora!" The door clicks open easily and I basically run out of my room.

Wait.

I walk back and glare at him as he's still lying on his back and grinning up at me, "Get out of my room, Potter."

He laughs and gets up, pausing next to me to whisper in my ear, "Anything you say, Love." And walks back out.

I want to yell at him.

I want to hit him.

I want to curse him.

But most of all.

I want to kiss him.

Stupid hormones.


	2. The Sirius Side

"Lily."

_No._

"Lily, c'mon."

_Noooo._

"Lily," she sighs, "I'm sorry for yesterday, okay?"

_Nooooo it is not okaaaaaay._

"Lily, freakin' wake up!" she yells.

How many times have I told you n- oh wait. That wasn't verbally.

"No," I mutter. There. Now go away, you annoying little bird, I wish to sleep.

"Lily," she frowns.

"But it's _Saturdaaaaay!_" I whine.

"Yeah, I know. We've got a Hogsmeade trip in fifteen minutes, and you promised me that you'd come with me."

My head pops up and I'm looking at my headboard. No, wait, that's my footboard. How'd I flip around again? Rylie is standing behind the curtains, her figure evident because of the shadow she's creating.

"Crap," I tell her.

"Yeah," she sounds like she's frowning, "Get ready. I'll guard the door."

She leaves the room and I am left to untangle myself from my sheets, failing miserably and landing on the floor with a very loud _thud._

"Lily?" Rylie asks.

"I fell out of bed," I tell her, rolling over onto my other side to nurse an injury.

"You're such a dork," she tells me.

"Love you too."

I further untangle myself from my sheets and dash into my bathroom, flinging on the water and running to go get clothes from my wardrobe. The water is very, _very_ cold, by the way, but I wish it to be warm. I wash myself quickly, but I need the water to get rid of those pesky kinks in my shoulders and probably heal my elbow – which I fell on during the Sheets Escapade. I get out and get dressed, rubbing a towel and a comb through my hair. Rylie can make it look better. She knows spells that make hair pretty, although I doubt she ever uses them. Or maybe she does and fails miserably.

Now – shoes, shoes, shoes. Where did those black flats go?

Oh wait. I kicked them off in the Common Room the other night. I think I actually threw one at James. Yes, perfect, there can be multitasking now!

I fling open my door and find that Rylie isn't there.

"Rylie! You suck at guarding doors!" I tell her.

"I know," she says as she twirls around her wand, making little swirls in the air as she lounges on the couch, "But thanks for reminding me."

"Shoes, shoes, shoes," I mutter before finally finding them under the coffee table. I slip them on and wait for Rylie to fix my hair. Once it is dry and shiny and lively and all of that stuff people want their hair to be, we get up and walk arm in arm out the portrait hole.

"Hey girls!" James stops us before we're completely out of the dorm, "Wait up, I'll walk with you."

I groan inwardly and Rylie frowns at me. She's mentally telling me to grow up. I'm mentally sticking me tongue out at her. She mentally sees this and mentally rolls her eyes.

…Yes, we're strange girls.

"So, did you hear the one about the brunette and the redhead?" James begins once we're on the landing.

"Yes, they killed the guy who was making jokes about them," I tell him. Rylie snickers slightly before turning it into a cough.

He frowns slightly at me, "Wet blanket."

"Prick."

"Stick in the mud."

"Neanderthal."

Rylie's rolling her eyes, letting go of my arm and walking ahead of us. I hardly notice.

We continue like that for a while before we run out of things to call each other. Rylie flings her hands in the air and says "Halleluiah." We both glare at her.

"You two are increasingly annoying when you do that," she defends herself.

"Why don't you go hang out with your fiancé?" I frown.

She turns a very lovely shade of red, "_He is my_ _boyfriend, __**not**__ my fiancé._"

"Same difference," I wave my hand away.

She glares at me for a few minutes before smiling calmly and recomposing herself into a totally different gal. She's standing straighter, looking sweeter, and her hands are folded neatly. All of the things her mother taught her and she swore she'd never listened.

Oh no.

I've only seen that pose a few times before, but she used it on the Marauders and it usually preceded social embarrassment.

She's going to say something I won't like. And I already know what it is.

"Fine then," she smiles, turning away and walking towards Filch before pausing and giving me another smile, "In that case, James is now your boyfriend." She then runs away from me, screaming her head off as I chase her.

"LILY AND JAMES, SITTIN' IN A TREE, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, FIRST COMES LO-aaf!"

I've tackled her. And I am now sitting on her back. Ha. Take that, Rylie Adrianna Jenkins. You've just been tackled by a five foot four inch person. How did that extra one and a half inch work out for you?

…She's laughing now. This is shaking me and I feel like I'm in one of those massaging chairs at the mall. I hate those things because some jiggly person might've been in that chair moments before me and gotten their jigglyness all over the chair.

…I have now ruined public massage chairs for you. You're welcome.

She continues to laugh, making me snap at her, "Just _what_ is so funny?"

She twists her head and grins slyly at me, "You didn't deny it."

I've got half a mind to hit her.

I would in fact.

But she can be scary on bad days and she's had three older brothers with absolutely no parental protection.

But we'll explain our back-stories later.

So instead I stick with the alternative…

…The _mature_ decision.

I tickle her.

_Repeatedly. _

She squeals and tries to squirm away from me, all while laughing and grabbing attention from witnesses. James is right behind me, laughing as I torture her. Many people turn around to look at us as if we should be sent to the mental ward at St. Mungo's. Half of the time I think we should.

"Nooo-ho-ho-ho," she laughs, "Lily! Sto-ho-ho-hop! Ple-he-he-hease! I'm s-sorry!"

I pause and look down at her, arching an eyebrow, "Are you going to take it back?"

She sighs, "Yes. Now get off, you crazy loon."

"Takes one to know one!" I sing-song as I get off of her, brushing off her hair from my green top. She gets up and glares at me before swiveling on her heel to march towards Filch. James is still laughing, but he quickly stops. I turn around to ask him what was wrong when I see it myself.

A pink headed Sirius Black is staring right through his best friend and to me, his arms crossed over his chest with his expression blank.

Oh Merlin.

I'm going to die.

Remus is right behind Sirius, looking as calm as ever as he mimics the mutt's posture.

Oh Merlin.

Sirius has turned Remus to his side.

The Dark Side.

No wait, I hate Star Wars.

The…_Sirius_ Side.

I guess that could work.

I wait for him to do something and notice that he's much less intimidating with bright pink hair.

It's almost kinda…feminine.

If he just read my thoughts, I'm already dead.

Oh Merlin, he's walking towards me.

Oh Merlin, this is it!

_I'M GOING TO DIE!_

I want my sister as far away from my funeral as possible, you hear that? VERY VERY FAR AWAY.

Huh.

He's going to kill me by holding out his hand?

What is with this world?

When I don't take it, he grabs my own hand and puts it into his.

…Now he's shaking it up and down. And grinning. And the shaking's getting faster. And now he's grinning more.

"Brilliant, Evans!" he finally says, looking as if I just told him he won the lottery, "Brilliant!"

"Umm," I manage, my eyebrows coming down a little, "What was?"

"Your _prank!_" he grins, "Bloody excellent, after I got over the initial shock of it! Well done!"

Huh.

He's congratulating me for _pranking_ him…well if that isn't enough incentive to do it again, I don't know what is.

I look pass his shoulder and see that Remus is smiling, looking as if he was very proud of him. James, however, is thoroughly confused.

"So," I say slowly, turning my attention back to the idiot shaking my hand, "You don't want to kill me?"

"Heavens no!" Sirius exclaims before whirling me around and wrapping an arm around my shoulders, "You know Lily, if we practice enough, you could become a Marauder by the end of this quarter!"

James appears beside us, grinning, "Well, now that everything's fine and dandy, we can – "

"Ohhhh no," Sirius stops him, glaring at him and pointing at his nose. He still hasn't let go of me by the way. "_YOU'RE_ the one who convinced her to prank me! THAT GOES AGAINST THE CODE, POTTER! 'Marauder Code, Rule Eighty-Three – No Marauder shall prank another Marauder or a close friend/relative/significant other EVER.' YOU BROKE THE CODE."

I'm amazed that they made up codes, let alone at least eighty-three of them.

James glares at the finger in his face, "You know, you don't _have_ to live with me."

Sirius thinks this over before swiping his other arm over James's shoulder and saying, "BUUUUUDDYYYYY!"

I cough a little, looking ahead to see Rylie just outside the door, holding up her camera and taking as many pictures as it will allow her. I don't even know where she got her camera from. She lost it a week ago. She looks up and I mouth 'Help me.' She acts like she's thinking about it, but the smile on her face already tells me that she won't.

Bugger.

I cough a little again, pushing slightly against Sirius's side, "Umm, not that I don't like being forgiven, but I really need to –"

"LILY, DON'T LEAVE ME!" Sirius screams, letting go of James all together and actually hugging me. This makes Rylie laugh so hard that she's on the ground.

Oof.

Stupid Sirius. He made me lose my balance. Now he's on top of me, still hugging me, and 'crying'. I, on the other hand, am getting thoroughly annoyed with him.

"Black," I say in the calmest voice I can muster, "If you do not remove your arms from me, I will hex you. You will never have children. Do you understand?"

He pauses before getting away from me slowly, putting up his hands in defeat and looking at me warily.

I nod as I stand up, "Good."

I walk towards Filch for him to admit me to leave, but before he even opens his mouth, I hear this:

"LILY, LILY, LILY, I MISS YOOOOOUUUUU!"

Everybody who just heard that is laughing. Even Filch is kinda smiling. But I am the only one not laughing. I wheel around and find Sirius leaning on James for support as he guffaws, Remus laughing as well. James, however, sees me glaring at Black and stops at once. He knows that if Black moves one inch, the hex/spell/charm/curse will hit him instead. So he protects himself and his friend.

"RUN PADFOOT, RUN! LILY SEES YOU!" he screams. Sirius's head snaps up and he gapes at me for about three seconds before running away from me, flailing his arms above his head and screaming.

"NO CHILDREN, NO CHILDREN!" he squawks in the faces of a few Ravenclaw girls, who begin laughing once he's gone past them.

Remus takes a few deep breaths to calm himself down, but once he sees me he has to hide behind a pillar to continue laughing.

I sigh and turn back towards Filch and say, "_Please_ let me leave!"

He nods solemnly and I practically run out the door, stopping to pick up the still-laughing Rylie and go out with the other students who missed the little spectacle.

And, believe it or not, a little spectacle always happens before we go to Hogsmeade. James professing his undying love for me, Rylie whining (loudly) about having to do homework after the trip, me yelling at James to get off me or else I'd hex him, Sirius arguing with Rylie, Jeremy and James arguing…

Yeah, we're just one being happy family…

I'm excluding the word 'dysfunctional', by the way.

* * *

><p>So after we go this way and that way and that way and this way, we're at Hogsmeade! Rylie wants to get something for her new niece, and she's contemplating on the pranking of her older brothers.<p>

Okay, so, Rylie's whole family had been born in England, even her, but they moved over to America right after Rylie had been born (see, that's why she doesn't sound like me). Her oldest brother, Charlie, got married two years ago and at the beginning of the school year his wife, Penelope, gave birth to the cutest little girl in the world, Charlotte (but we refer to her as Lottie). Rylie's other brothers, Jon and Andrew, help Charlie run the Iris Inn, something their parents had started in some state (don't ask me which one, I don't know). Rylie's (wizard) dad died when she was three, and her (Muggle) mum died in her third year. But Rylie's mum was making Rylie act like a "proper lady," you know – sit up straight, chew with your mouth closed, that stuff? And the only time she got to be herself was at Hogwarts.

So, naturally, the owner of Honeyduke's Sweetshop knows us by name by our seventh year.

And while Rylie decides between sugar quills or chocolate frogs (this takes _forever_), I will torture you with my life story.

Okay. Both of my parents are alive and well, but I've got this annoying and whiny older sister named Petunia. She has this ugly boyfriend named Vernon Dursley whom I absolutely can not stand. He's all big and round and he treats me like I'm two. Blagh. Anyway, Tuney is mean and has this strange obsession for the ugliest shades of pink. Let's see, let's see…I'm a Muggle-born, my sign is Aquarius and I can't find a beach anywhere to take a long walk on. That concludes your Lily Evans tour.

Oh, hey, she's done. She's got a sugar quill and is already eating it on her way out. Hey, wait, she left me!

"Rylie!" I call, getting through the crowd of people.

She didn't hear me, and I'm not about to yell at her. Maybe because she's already on the street and I'm still stuck in Honeyduke's.

I find the door and yank on it, running out onto the street only to knock into somebody.

"Sorry," I mumble before I recognize the smell. It's the same smell on Quidly. Holy crap. I've just run into Potter. And not only that, I've just run into Potter's chest. Potter's chest is not very squishy like some other guys' chest, since Quidditch has made it muscled and ve –

Someone kill me. Now. _Please._

"It's oka-," he stops as I pull away from him, his arms on my arms to keep me from running away. "Lily!" I look up and his face actually brightens.

Hmph.

This whole "in love with me" act is actually pretty good. I would've believed it had I been in need of a brain.

"LILY!" Sirius cheers in this high pitched girly scream, throwing his arms up in the air and giving a big grin. He gets a little bit closer, but I stop him.

"I swear to God, Padfoot, if you so _dare_ as try to hug me again," I glare, "No children. Ever."

He freezes before his grin falters a little, giving me a confused grin. It makes him look like he's got gas. Hey wait, Potter is still holding onto my arms. I look back at him and see that he's studying my face very seriously, not the 'omg I want to nom yur face off lolllll' look some guys get when they're in need of a brain and they say they like you. No, he looks as if I've got something on my face. This makes me cross my eyes and ask him why he's staring at me.

He blinks and puts his hands in his pockets as he grins, "Nothing. Where's Rylie? I thought she was with you."

I huff, "I thought she was too. But she abandoned me."

"OH NOES!" Sirius exclaims, clasping his hands to his face and making his mouth a giant '0,' "LILY HAS BEEN ABANDONED."

"Padfoot, would you be so kind as to not scream in my ear?" James winces, "Damaging my hearing."

"Huh? Oh, sorry," he finally talks normally. That's when I notice something.

"Errr…Sirius?" I ask, "Why is your hair still pink?"

"'Cause I dunno where you get the hair dye stuff," he says simply, "And Remus wanted to stay at Hogwarts so I can't ask him, and Peter's got detention for a month because we dared him to – "

"Nah, nah, nah, I don't need to know," I stop him.

"And Jamesie and I dunno," he finishes as James huffs.

"Don't call me Jamesie," he frowns.

I roll my eyes, grabbing the sleeves on both of their jackets and tugging them down the street. They keep asking me where I'm going, but they finally shut up when I stop them in front of Madame Louvre's Beauty Supply Shop.

The outside looks like pink threw up on pink, and that threw up on this. I grimace as they look at the shop before looking down at me, since they're both taller than me. I remember the days where I could glare at James Potter in the eye and not have to get a chair to stand on. No, that's over exaggerating, I'm not a midget! Although I heard that 'midget' is a very offense term nowadays, so I will no longer use that word. I'm just saying that even if I stand on my toes, I think I'll come up to his nose. And I don't want him sniffing me, so that's out of the question. Anyway, the looks that they're giving me are along the lines of 'something is very wrong with you.'

"Well," I say, releasing their sleeves and taking a step and a half back, "Have fun!"

"What're you, nuts?" Sirius asks.

"We're not going in there," James tells me, grabbing my arm so I can no longer back away. Darn him.

"Well then it looks as though Sirius's hair shall stay pink," I say, "Because I'm not going in for you."

Sirius and James share a very similar grin, one I can't decipher in the two seconds that it's seen before James tells me, "You don't have to go in _for_ us."

Sirius grabs my other arm, "You're going in _with_ us."

My eyebrows shoot up, "What?"

We start walking towards the shop and I am forced to go to my last resort.

"RYLIE!" I yell. I hear a very faint "Wha?" before someone opens the door and I'm shoved into…

_Petunia Land._

Sirius lets go of me and bounds over to the nearest shelf and points at something and says, "Lily, wassat?"

I shrug James off of me and give him a glare before saying, "I don't see what you're pointing at."

He picks up a curling iron and points to it and says, "Lily, wassat?"

"A curling iron," I shrug.

He puts it back before turning around and picking up a make-up bag, "A purse?"

I sigh, "Make-up bag."

"There's a difference?"

"Yes," I walk over to the hair dye, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible. Once I'm staring at all the hair colors I realize that I don't know which color his hair was before.

"Sirius, come here," I say.

"I didn't do it, I swear!" he cries behind my back.

I turn around to squint at him, finding that James has walked off, "What didn't you do?"

"Umm," the pink haired boy says, "Nuthin'." He walks over to me and I reach up to grab his head, bending him down so I can look at the top of his head. He complains that I'm hurting his back, but I tell him to hush or else he'll stay as a bubblegum pink haired freak for who knows how long. He shuts up and lets me find a black strand. I look over at the blacks and find one that was pretty close. I grab the box and hand it to him before trying to walk out the store.

"You do realize that I have no idea how to put this in my hair, right?" he asks.

I want to smack myself in the face. Of course he wouldn't. I should've known that.

"So, what," I turn around to frown at him, "You think I do?"

"Well, no, but you're a girl. Don't girls come programmed with this knowledge?"

I exhale through my nose, "No Sirius, they don't."

James walks back to us and grabs the box from Sirius, "My mum uses this stuff. There are instructions on the side panel." He gives it back to him before walking out the store and I quickly follow, not wanting to be stuck with Black.

"OH MY MERLIN, LILY," one of my friends, Serena, screams, grabbing my arm and then James's, "SNAPE AND SOME OTHER KID ARE FIGHTING. YOU TWO HAVE TO STOP THEM."

Ouch.

Okay, so, back whenever I was a little girl, my best friend had been Severus Snape. I won't go into detail, but he called me a Mudblood a few years back. I haven't talked to him nicely since then.

And now he was fighting with…whoever he was fighting with. And I had to break it up.

_Siiiiiiiiigh_.

I hate my life. It always seems to find ways to torture me. And it shows no mercy. Ever.


	3. Healing Effects

"But Lily, I – "

Gaaaawwwd, shut uuuuuup.

"Severus, I don't care," I snap.

"Lily, c'mon," he pleads.

"Just leave me alone!" I tell him.

"Snivelli, back off!" Sirius barks.

"Oh shut up, you fuchsia follicle freak," he glares at him.

"So, what?" Rylie says, coming over to my side, "Suddenly you want to hang out with some Mudbloods like us?"

Now, Severus never called _Rylie_ a Mudblood. Rylie hadn't even been there for the incident, she'd been in detention with McGonagall for PDA. She would've killed Severus anyway. But Rylie, being one of those friends who believes that if you insult her friends, you insult her. And you do _not_ want to insult Rylie. Her lips and eyes get all squinchy and she looks like her head's about to explode. Very scary. Anyway –

"Back off Jenkins, I don't want to talk to you," he frowns at her.

"Hm, funny, because I really doubt Lily wants to talk to you," James muses.

Right now I really don't want to talk to anyone. So at least he's half right.

"Lily, please – " Severus starts before the redhead in me decides to take action.

"Alright. Alright," I say, turning and slapping my thighs, "What do you want to say? How you're sorry that you called me what you think I am? How you regret ever doing that? How you wish that I had been put in Slytherin instead so you wouldn't have to deal with a mob of Gryffindors every time you wanted to talk to me? Well here, let me say this – after looking back on all of the things that happened, I wish I'd never even _met_ you. How's that for a 'Lily, please'?"

Everyone around me is silent. The first years are on the outer edge of the semicircle. Those braver are closer. I don't think anybody expected me to say anything.

And then I hear somebody clapping. I look and it's Sirius. Then Rylie has to cover her mouth, because she'd never let Sirius Black know that he can make her laugh. That'd only encourage him. And then a few other kids in my year start clapping, then even some of the first years are clapping as quietly as they can.

Everybody is clapping and applauding except me, Severus, and James. James is watching me like he's worried about me. Severus grits his teeth before walking off. I just kind of sigh before walking over to the opening of the semicircle to go back to the castle. Hogsmeade has nothing for me today. I only came because Rylie wanted me to. She sees me walking off and follows, James standing there and shaking his head as Sirius screams, "BRAVO, BRAVO, ENCORE, ITALIANO!"

"Lily," Rylie says gently as I hear a few other people follow me, "It's okay."

I finally stop and sigh, "I hate him."

"I know."

"I didn't use to."

"I know."

"But then he made me hate him."

"I know."

I huff and turn around to her to see her, Serena and Alice waiting patiently for me to say something else.

"Can you say something _besides_ 'I know'?" I ask.

Rylie hums before shrugging, "I don't know."

"Darn you Jenkins. Darn you all to heck."

They all grin at me before Alice throws her arm over my shoulder.

"It's alright, Lily," she tells me, "Everything will work out in the end."

"Yes," I snort, rolling my eyes, "Things could be worse. I could end up married to – to James Potter because of lack of better judgment and then get killed by You-Know-Who."

"That's the spirit!" Serena grins. We all kind of have to laugh.

At dinner I am inclined to lay my head on the table and frown at my food. I should've been working on a Potions essay, but _Rylie_ wanted me to go to stupid Hogsmeade. So now I've got to do all of that on Sunday. I NEED TWO DAYS TO WRITE ESSAYS, RYLIE. I THOUGHT YOU KNEW THIS. She's helping me. Well, no, I don't want her helping me. She never tries hard enough for Potions class. She says it's too hard for her.

Well then who will help me? Who else is good at Potions and isn't my ex-best friend?

…Remus Lupin. But to ask him to help is to also invite the rest of the Marauders. I mean, Pettigrew isn't that bad, he hardly ever talks to me. It's just the other two I can't stand. But Potter hasn't been all that bad to me lately. Hasn't even asked me out this week. That's a record for him.

I weigh my options.

Fail Potions…

Hang out with Marauders for an entire day…

Lose hopes of getting a job as an Auror…

Hang out with Marauders for an entire day…

End up living on the side of the road in a box…

Hang out with Marauders for an entire day…

…Shh, I'm thinking.

Bah, looks like Sunday will be 'Ignore the 75% of Marauders That Aren't Helping Me With a Potions Essay Day.' Darn those boxes.

I sigh and stand up to go walk over to their side of the Gryffindor table. Sirius acts as if he hasn't seen food in fifty years; Remus is grimacing at his table manners while James and Peter cheer him on.

Oh Merlin, please kill me.

"Hey Remus," I say as I stand next to him. He looks up and grins before opening his mouth, only to be interrupted by Sirius.

"LILYYYYYY!" he cheers before choking on his food. James laughs at him as Remus sighs, dropping his head into his hands.

"Hi Lily," Remus says, standing up and leading me away from the others, "Please excuse Padfoot. He was beaten in the head a few times by a Bludger last game."

"HEARD THAT!" Sirius screams

"MOONY MADE A FUNNY! THE WORLD IS DOOMED!" James laughs.

Remus sighs before arching an eyebrow at me, "Was there something you needed?"

"Actually, yes. We've got a Potions essay due tomorrow and usually I need two days to write essays, but Rylie dragged me to Hogsmeade and I lost a day. I was wondering if you would be willing to help me tomorrow," I tell him. Remus is nice and polite and all of this makes me wonder why he's a Marauder.

"Sure, I mean, that is if you don't mind the," he stops because something crashes to the floor behind him, someone making "Ooooooh" sounds, "…_Others_."

I sigh, "I think I'll be able to manage."

"Alright. And, hey, I think James and Sirius have Quidditch practice at night, so you won't have to deal with them as long."

"Great, thanks for helping me out, Remus," I smile before walking away, only to slip and fall to the floor, my hands flying back to keep me from spraining my tush or something. Only I hear a crack in my left wrist and I cry out in pain, holding my arm up and hissing as pain throbs through it. Stupid pumpkin juice in it's cleverly placed location. I'll never drink you again.

"Lily!" James exclaims, almost immediately at my side. Merlin, that boy is fast.

"Good Lord, Evans!" Rylie gasps, nearly abandoning her banana. Yes, she eats bananas every day at dinner. Don't question her. She apparently has an answer for everything.

"What hurts?" James asks.

"Ohh, certainly not the wrist that's starting to turn colors as she cradles it," Sirius rolls his eyes, "No, certainly not that."

I let out a gasp of pain as James grabs my good arm's elbow and pulls me to my feet, "Ow."

"I know," he says, "C'mon, let's get you to the Hospital Wing."

Rylie contemplates the leaving of her banana, but I tell her to stay put. She salutes before noming her banana, perfectly happy with herself.

…

She's worried on the inside, I assure you.

James holds the door open for me to go out to the staircase, then holding my arm as we walk up the stairs.

"How bad does it hurt?" he asks.

"Pretty bad," I wince as my arm continues to throb, even a few tears spilling over.

"Heh," he kinda laughs, "I don't think you'd like Quidditch then. You get hurt all the time in that game. Madame Pomfrey and I are on a first name basis, in fact."

I smile slightly, "What is it?"

"Poppy."

I blink slightly as we turn a corner, "It's weird for teachers and staff to have first names."

"I know, right? But don't worry about your wrist; I'm sure it's nothing that bad. And besides, Madame Poppy Pomfrey is the greatest medi-witch Hogwarts has ever seen!"

I give him a grateful smile. Anybody else would've been laughing at or scolding me. But not him. He was trying to reassure me, even making me smile.

All too soon we're at the Hospital Wing and James pushes open the door and gently pushes me inside. He steps in and calls out, "Poppy! I'm back!"

Madame Pomfrey's sigh is heard before she steps into view, looking a little annoyed at him, "James, how many times have I told you not to call me that?"

He looks as though he searches his brain for a minute, making little "tch, tch, tccchhhh" sounds before finally concluding, "Eight hundred seventy-two times, Ma'am. No, wait, now it's eight hundred seventy-three. My mistake. Anyway, Lily fell and hurt her wrist and we can't have a crippled Head Girl, now can we?"

"Oh Heavens no," Madame Pomfrey says as she comes closer, holding out her hand to ask for mine, "Just let me cast an X-ray spell and see the damage."

I hesitate before finally holding out my arm to her, clenching and unclenching the good hand. She holds her wand over it before casting the spell, white figures on black paper emitting from the top. She holds these up to the light to look at them before making a face.

"I don't like that face," I mutter, holding my arm back to me. James smiles and reaches over to rub my back. I am slightly ashamed to say that yes, this does comfort me a little.

"Oh, well," she holds the pictures out for James and me to see, "You've cleanly broken it, see? The end of the one bone is floating there."

"Are you going to have to set it?" James asks as I pale. I mean, that was currently _inside_ of me. I was never going to make it as a doctor.

"No, it's floating in its place. You just have to be very, very still Miss Evans, and let me see your arm again."

I hold it out to her and she casts a few spells. James even stays there, his hand still on my back as he watches her. There's something different about him now. Like he's paying attention for once. But this was James Potter, so that surely couldn't be it. …Could it?

"All done," she smiles as she pulls away, "But I want you to take it easy for the next few days, and _do_ be more careful."

"Yes Ma'am," I smile as I carefully flex my hand, turning my wrist back and forth and finding that it was a little shaky. Oh well, at least I didn't need a cast.

"Thanks Madame Pomfrey," James smiles at her.

"You're welcome and James?"

"Yes?"

"Please don't ever come visit me again."

He laughs as we walk out up to our dorm, although he didn't make any promises, I notice.

But the way he was watching as she fixed my arm still bugged me, so once we told the jester portrait the password ("Savvy Squash") and were in the dorm I decided to ask him.

"James?" I say, making him turn around to look at me.

"Yeah, Lily?" he asks as he tilts his head to one side. Gosh, he can be so cute sometimes. And I just love his eyes, they're so –

Ahem. Stay focused, Lily. Fffffocus.

"Whenever Madame Pomfrey was fixing my arm…you were watching."

"Yeah…and?"

I frown slightly, "Well, the way you were watching is kind of bugging me, like you were paying attention or something."

He smiles, absentmindedly running a hand through his hair. I used to hate it when he did that, but now I love it since it gives me an excuse to look at his eyes, since a piece of hair almost always falls there.

He shrugs a little, "I like it."

"Like what?"

"How no matter how bad an injury is, there's always a way to fix it."

I blink at him, "Really?"

"Yeah. When I got into my first accident, I kept asking her what she was going to do and how she was going to do it and so on. The next time, I did the same thing. I kept up the routine, but not because I was scared anymore, but because I wanted to _know_."

"So…you want to be a Healer?"

He shrugs a little, "I dunno, maybe…."

Wow. James Potter wants to be a Healer. Huh.

"Well, if it's worth anything, I think you'd be a great Healer," I tell him.

His eyes brighten and I can't help but smile.

"Thanks…hey, Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you want to be?"

I feel like I'm five, in a sandbox with my friends as we discuss what we want to be when we grow up. Except I doubt we're allowed to play with sand in our Common Room. It'd be cool if we could, though.

I shrug a little, "I'd like to be an Auror, I guess."

He arches an eyebrow and smiles, "Really? Inflicting harm on innocent Marauders isn't enough fun for you?"

I snort and roll my eyes, "Since when are you four _innocent_?"

He laughs, "Good question. But, what would you do if you couldn't be an Auror?"

Huh. That is an _excellent_ question. One I hadn't really thought about.

"Well…I guess I'd go back to what I wanted to be before I came to Hogwarts."

"Which is…?"

I really don't want to tell him. I'd only ever told Alice, Rylie, Serena and my mother about this. It seems like it's too personal to tell James Potter, of all people. But…it couldn't have been easy for this daredevil prankster to admit that he wanted to _help_ people.

"Well…I actually…kind of want to be a mom," it comes out in a whisper.

"Really?" he asks, his eyebrows going up as he blinks.

"Yeah."

We stand there for a while in silence before he smiles.

"I think you'd be a great mom, Lily."

"Thanks. Night James," I smile, "Thanks for helping with my arm."

"No problem. Night Lily."

I turn around and go to my door as he goes to his, but before I get inside he tells me something else.

"Oh, and, uh, thanks for using my first name," I turn around and find that he's smirking, "It's a real nice change from 'Potter' and 'Toe-rag'."

I smirk back, "Oh shut up, Potter."

He sighs playfully before going in his room. I can't help but smile again.

James Potter, of all people, has actually brightened my day.

And it doesn't feel that bad, to be honest.


	4. Sir Ius Knockitoff the Third

The world is ending.

Want to know how I know that?

Because I am sitting on the Heads' Common Room couch, laughing so hard that I can barely breathe.

But that's not why the world is ending.

Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin are making me laugh.

But, no, that's still not why the world is ending.

The world is ending because I, Lily Evans, am leaning on a laughing James Potter for support.

We had just finished lunch and Remus was helping me start on my Potions essay, since we had spent the time from breakfast until lunch plotting my paragraphs and such. Sirius suggests that he, Peter and James should play a game of chess. And somehow this leads to Sirius pretending to be a knight and swaying his wand around like it's a sword. Remus of course jumps up and tells him to quit it, he might hit someone. He exclaims that Remus is trying to overthrow him in mutiny (although he said it like 'mutton-y') and begins to throw chess pieces at him while screaming "Hark!" and "Yonder!" and "Argh, me matey!"

"Lily! James! Help!" Remus screams as he swats off the chess pieces, who are determined to attack this new foe. But we can't help him because we're laughing too hard.

"YOU!" Sirius gasps, pointing his wand at Peter, "WHERE ART THOU LOYALTY?"

Peter stares at him for a minute before glancing over at me and James, and we really are trying to get a grip, I swear, but then Peter just says in this really funny voice, "_Whaaaaaat?_" and we crack up even harder.

Sirius gasps, tugging at his new black hair, "Unsure, seem you? Well then, thou must be working for Wolfy!" He points over at Remus, who still has chess pieces climbing up him, but now he's stomping one into the carpet. He pauses, however, because he heard Sirius. He slowly turns to him, ignoring the chess pieces for the most part, and looks indignant.

"Wolfy?" he repeated, "Oh _come on_. You can come up with something better than _that_!"

Sirius snickers as we laugh even harder before regaining his composure, "Well then, what do you wish to be called?"

Remus frowns at him, "Sirius, knock it off."

"Sir Ius Knockitoff. Okay," Sirius purses his lips before pointing his wand back at Peter, "Thou must be working for Sir Ius Knockitoff…the third!" He had said it so dramatically that if we were in a movie, lightning and thunder would've gone off.

"I – I can't breathe!" I tell James in a fit of giggles.

"Umm, no," Peter tells him, "I'm not working."

Sirius drops his arms and stares at him for a bit, "Mate, can't you just play along?"

"Ohhhh!" he nods before frowning for a second, "I work naught for this 'Sir Ius Knockitoff the third'! I work for…"

"Good boy, Peter," Sirius smiles before turning back into his persona, "You work for…Princess Lily of Buckingchickenshire?"

"What?" I stop laughing because I realize that I'm being towed into this.

"Chickenshire?" Remus repeats. He's been doing this funny dance for a while, twirling in a circle and stomping on the chess pieces

"Shush you," Sirius frowns at him before pointing his wand at me, "You, how _dare_ you, hiring this boy to do your labors. Why, thy should be hung in the gallows for this ungodly act! What say ye?" He pointed at James when he said 'this boy', so yeah, I'm an itty bitty bit confused. I should end this now and tell him to grow up.

…_Should_ being the keyword here.

Instead I stand up and smooth out my jeans, holding my head higher before opening my mouth.

"_Buck-buckack!_" I slap my hands over my mouth as we all erupt into new fits of giggles, Sirius ending up rocking on his back on the floor as Peter lies on his back and laughs. James is shaking, but no sound's coming out. Remus even stops his funny dancing to laugh.

"Oh my Merlin," Sirius laughs, "I can't believe you just did that!"

I drop my hands and grin at him, "_You_ can't believe it? Try being me! Oh Merlin, I can't believe I just _clucked!_ What was I thinking?"

James takes a few deep breaths, "You were thinking, 'Hey…Chickenshire.'"

This sends us into a brand new fit of laughs, even though we have no idea why.

"Okay, okay," Remus takes a few deep breaths and we try to follow his lead, "Lily has a Potions essay to do and James and Sirius have Quidditch practice in two hours."

"Awww," Sirius pouts, "Don't wanna!"

I sit back down next to James as he tries to calm down the few laughs that escape. I bring my parchment and quill back to me and find that I've only got a sentence or two written.

"Oh Merlin," I sigh, "I'm never going to get this done by tomorrow!"

"What's it about?" James asks.

"That…stone," I make a circular motion in one hand, "You know that one? That…has something to do with poison? You know, that one."

"Oh Merlin, you're hopeless," he tells me as he takes my paper from me.

"I just forgot the name of it, okay?" But yes, I am hopeless, thank you for noticing.

"Bezoar. That the stone?" he asks, looking up slightly from my paper. His glasses are tilted down and his eyes are trained on me. He's smiling slightly before returning my things to me and leaning deeper into the couch. I look back at my paper and realized –

"What'd you write, Potter?" I ask.

"Well, read it and find out."

I swear, if it's another "Go-on-a-date-with-me-Lily…"

But it's not. In addition to my one sentence ("_The bezoar, a shriveled kidney-like stone, protects from most poisons._"), he's written about three or four of his own. And they're _good_.

I check and double-check the paper Remus and I had constructed our paragraphs on, "That's not on here anywhere."

Remus looks up from Sirius mourning the loss of his chess friends, "James, are we going to have to start over because of you?"

"No," I say immediately, "It's _perfect._"

"What?" four voices ask, even the owner of my newly acquired sentences asking.

"I didn't know this!" I admit, "How did you - ?"

"Remember that _thing_ we talked about?" he looks at me pointedly before glancing back at Sirius, who is gaping at him. Oh. Of course. He would never have told his friends what he told me.

"You knew something Moony didn't?" Sirius breathes.

James shrugs as Remus blinks before he lurches forward, grabbing the paper from my hands. He reads it a few times before looking over at James with an eyebrow arched.

"James…" Remus holds the paper out in front of him, "You…?"

James huffs, "Will everybody bloody quit acting surprised? I can be smart too you know, it doesn't _have_ to be just Lily and Remus!"

Suddenly, inspiration struck and I leapt up, trying to grab my paper from Remus's hand, "Remus, no, lemme see that, I figured out what to write next!"

He handed it to me and I spent the next three hours craned over my paper. During this time, James and Sirius had left for Quidditch practice and Peter had decided that he wanted to go to bed. So Remus sat there and watched me write before I was finally done.

He was looking over the essay and I sat there, twirling my quill around my fingers as I watched him. After a while, he looked up and grinned.

"Good job, Lily," he says, "If you don't get an 'O' then Slughorn's definitely off his rocker."

"Thanks Remus," I reach over and hug him, "Sorry you had to give up your Sunday for me."

"Nah, it's okay. It was entertaining, at least," he eyes the pile of crunched up chess pieces, a little flower poking through the mound, "Merlin, Sirius is a handful to deal with."

I laugh as I stuff my "oh-so-wonderful" essay into my bag.

"Night Lily, I gotta go to bed," Remus yawns before wincing, "Besides, if I don't go now, Filch might catch me."

"Night Remus," I say offhandedly before freezing, just before he climbs through the portrait hole, "Hey Remus?"

"Yeah?"

"You said that it was getting close to curfew, right?"

"Yeah…."

"Didn't Quidditch practice end thirty minutes ago?"

We look at each other for a minute before he sighs, holding up his hands, "I am not responsible for any actions my so-called 'friends' do during my absence from them. Thank you and have a good night." And with that he closes the portrait and I sigh.

"Well, I was going to wait for the prat," I say aloud as I stretch, "But if he's going to put himself at the mercy of Filch, I better not bother."

* * *

><p>I am so tired. I mean, really tired. I mean really really really really <em>REALLY<em> tired. I shouldn't have taken Sirius up on his offer to raid the kitchen. I _really_ shouldn't have.

…But I did.

And now I have a massive headache and I've just come back from Divination, where the incense is strong enough to make you pass out at times. I am so glad I have this free period. Lily or Remus would suggest using it to do some homework. Well, neither of them are here, now are they? Although…

I wish Lily was.

And not just because I'm in love with her or anything (which, I am, by the way), but because I really want to know how she did on her essay. We've got every class together, sure, but she usually sits away from me, out of note-throwing reach. But she was too smart to take Divination, so I didn't get to see her for an hour.

Aaaaaggggghhh, inceeeeeense. It's burning my sinuses. I push my hands against my eyes and lean back into the couch. Oh, ew. I can feel my pulse on my hands. Eeeeewwwww.

The portrait opens and Lily steps in, where she freezes as she finds me sitting on the couch and dying.

…Well, I am dying, see…on the inside. No seriously! Some of the incense is working it's way into my brain and shutting it down from the inside, I swear.

"Hey," I garble out, leaning forward and resting my arms on my knees, rubbing my temples, "How was Potions?"

She walks over and sits next to me before doing something I never thought she would do. She wraps her arms around my neck before placing a kiss on my cheek.

Yup.

She did, I swear this time! Lily Evans totally kissed me, James Potter! As if everything were okay in the world. No harm done.

And this magically cures my headache! Huzzah!

She pulls back and I'm left to look like an idiot, blinking and wondering if the incense is slowly making it's final blow against my poor, poor brain.

"Thank you," she beams, "Because of what you wrote, Slughorn gave me a plus, which bumped up my Potions grade!"

"That's…great…kiss…why?"

I am fully aware that I sound like an idiot, thank you!

She rolls her eyes, "That was a 'thank you', James. Nothing more."

I grin over at her, regaining my James-Potterism, "Nothing less as well." And then the stupid incense and the stupid headache return, making me clutch my head and groan.

"James? What's wrong?" she asks.

"Headache…incense…pain…" I ground out.

"Ohhhh," she frowns, "C'mon, let's go to Pomfrey."

"No way," I frown back.

"C'mon, I thought you liked that stuff?" she asks.

"Yeah, well, I do, but have you ever tasted that Pepperup Potion? I'd rather sit here and wait it out, thank you."

"So what if it turns into a cold? Are you going to wait that out as well?"

"Yup." My Lily Flower, she's so smart, I tell you.

"And if that cold turns into, say, the Black Plague, will you wait it out then?"

"Til death do us part," I say, not missing a beat.

She purses her lips and frowns at me before sighing, "Alright. I'd be willing to strike up a deal with you."

"What kind of deal?"

"The kind you like."

"Oh goody, what is it?" I wince as my head throbs.

"If you drink whatever Madame Pomfrey gives you, I'll kiss you."

"Really?" I sit up a little straighter and wince as my headache stabs my brain, "Two kisses in one day? _Wait._ How do I know you won't back out of it?"

She rolls her eyes, "I'll kiss you before we go and then you'll have to follow through with your end of the deal."

"Are you serious?" I blink.

She sighs, "Yes, unfortunately. Take it or leave it though."

"Alright…_but_ – "

She groans and I fight down a smile.

"_I_ decide how long the kiss lasts, and you walk down to the Hospital Wing with me."

She rolls her eyes, "I was going to walk with you anyway."

"Alright, but the first one stands. Deal?" I hold out my hand and arch an eyebrow. She'll take my deal, of course. Lily loves me, she just won't admit it.

She wrinkles her nose, and this looks kind of comical but also kind of cute on her, "Alright, _but_ – "

"Aaaagh."

She arches an eyebrow, "Was that because of me or the headache?"

"Both," I answer.

"Alright…anyway. I have one rule of my own. _No tongue_," she glares at me and I grin. She knows me way too well.

"Deal," I say as she shakes my hand, "It feels funny, y'know? Shaking hands before we kiss. Real weird."

She mutters an agreement before arching an eyebrow at me. As in, she doesn't know how to proceed. But, luckily for her, I do. I grab her chin and put my lips to hers, closing my eyes as her breathing stops.

Lily Evans is not like any other girl. Any other girl would've given up having me chase her after years. Any other girl would fall into the peer pressure and prank someone on her own, without copious amounts of coxing and coffee. Any other girl wouldn't make a deal that if we kiss, I'd go up to the Hospital Wing and know it'd work. Any other girl doesn't kiss as well as Lily Evans.

All of these are _facts,_ by the way. Anything else is fiction.


	5. Sickly Heads and Innocentish Girls

_I hate James Potter_.

You want to know why? You REALLY want to know why?

He made me sick.

LITERALLY!

Once we – ahem – did my end of the deal, I walked with him up to the Hospital Wing and watched as Madame Pomfrey said that he might actually have had a slight concussion, since he admitted that he had been hit in the head with a bludger during the practice. So he drank this fizzy blue potion and we walked back to our dorm so I could help him with his homework.

But, during dinner, I did one of my girly squeaky sneezes. I repeated this until it got to the point where Rylie eyed me warily and made Alice touch my forehead. She hates getting sick, Rylie, she thinks we'll make her go to a hospital or something. Anyway, Alice proclaims that I'm running a fever and they try to convince me to go to Madame Pomfrey ('they' being Alice and Serena since Rylie has gone over to the _other_ end of the table) but I shrug them off and tell them I'm fine.

But then, oho, _then_ I wake up in the morning feeling like _death itself_. I miss breakfast entirely because if anything even tries to go down my throat, I'll barf it up. And during Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall notices my pale complexion and funny looking eyes. Rylie standing against the wall and holding up a cross with her fingers could've been another give away. She makes me go to Pomfrey, who says that there isn't any medication to help me – muggle or non – and that I should just go back to my dorm and try to get some rest.

But I can't. Because I'm about to _murder_ a certain Head Boy.

...Meeeeeeehhhhh. It hurts to move! I'll kill him when I feel better then.

I open the portrait hole and climb in, dropping my bag just inside of the door and glaring at James, who is lounging on the couch and looking up bored as he releases and catches his illegal Snitch. He notices that I am there and blinks in confusion, since I should be in either Transfiguration or Charms by this point. He looks me over and a look of sympathy comes.

"I'm sorry," he said, sitting up and grabbing his Snitch in both hands, "But _you're_ the one who made the deal."

I frown and sigh before dropping into the chair, "I know. I _hate_ being sick."

"Utter misery," he agrees.

"It hurts to moooove," I tell him after a few minutes, bringing my knees up to my chest and laying my head down on them.

"That can't be comfortable," he says.

"It's not."

"Come over here then."

"Why should I?"

"I've got the blanket and body heat and the same thing you do, so I _know_ you're freezing."

I pick my head up to frown at him. He's put the Snitch away now, to somewhere I can't tell where. I am, in fact, freezing to death, even though I'm using my _own_ body heat. I don't want to use his but, really, I'm going to die if I don't.

I groan and stand up to go sit with him. Once I sit down, however, he slightly pushes me down so that I'm lying with my back against his chest. I'm still kind of shocked by this when he pulls the blanket over us and wraps an arm around me underneath it, as if we'd been dating for years and both of us are completely okay with body contact. Except we haven't and I'm not. But I stay still and quiet because he's _warm. _And not the suffocating warm that everybody hates, the one that you really don't want to move because you're afraid you'll lose it.

He shifts slightly so that his lips are right next to my ear. If I leaned up a little, I could kiss him again. But I'm not because we're both sick and it'd be gross…AND because I don't like him.

"I'm bored," he mumbles, making me smile a little.

"Me too," I whisper back.

"What d'you wanna do?"

"I dunno. Wish we had a TV."

"What's a TV?"

I'm about to ask what he means "what's a TV?" when I remember he's pureblood. Of course he wouldn't know what a TV was.

"It's this box and moving pictures come up. And sound comes up too. It's like a play, I guess, but you don't have to sit there in a theater."

"Mmm," he hums as he plays with a piece of my hair, "What else is there in Muggle-land?"

"Just…" I shrug slightly, "Stuff."

"What _kind_ of stuff?"

I sigh, "Don't you take Muggle studies?"

"Yes," he answers simply as he continues to play with my hair.

"Try paying attention in that class."

"But I don't like that class."

"Why?"

"You're not in it."

I blush slightly, despite how much I don't want to, "Then drop it then."

"Well, in all honesty, I'd rather take Muggle studies than Divination…how come you don't have to take Divination?"

"I told the professor that my great aunt Sissy was killed for telling prophecies and that my whole family vowed never to practice Divination after that."

"You don't have a great aunt Sissy, do you?"

"Nope," I smile up at him as he grins.

"Wow, pranking Padfoot, lying to a professor, you're a rebel, Lily Evans. If you're not careful, you're going to end up the first female Marauder."

"HONEY, I'M HOME!" Sirius slams the portrait open, making the jester curse at him as he fixes his funny hat.

"_Merlin, Padfoot!_" James hisses at him as he and I sit up. Thankfully Sirius hadn't seen us, but unfortunately his view was obscured by suspicious looking boxes.

"Rylie, c'mon, she's your best friend," Remus was saying outside the doorway.

"I am not getting sick, Remus!" Rylie exclaims.

"You won't necessarily get sick," Peter says, "There's a one in a million chance you will."

"Oh, don't tell her that, Peter," Jeremy advises, "She's always that one in a millio – OW, woman, that _hurt_!"

"_Good!_" she says.

"You're violent!"

"I grew up with boys, what do you expect?"

"Maybe that you'd act like a girl? _OW_, QUIT THAT!"

"QUIT CALLING ME A BOY!"

I looked over at James and grimaced as Rylie came stomping in before realizing that we were still sick. She grabbed her scarf and pushed it up to her nose and mouth. She plopped down in a chair by the window and sat there and glared out at it. Jeremy came in next, rubbing his arm and frowning over at Rylie. Remus came in, shaking his head as Peter winced.

"Something amiss?" Sirius asks, looking around the little glum group.

"Shove off," Rylie mutters.

"What's wrong?" I ask. Jeremy and Rylie never fight. At least, not in public, and certainly not something as stupid as that. Usually about something even more stupid, like homework or what teachers' first names are.

She sighs, "I'll tell you later."

She always does. Because I always bug her about it until she does. I know which song she hates more than anything in the world. But, unfortunately, so does Sirius, and he won't let anything go.

"Tell us now," he says.

"Lily, not you," she frowning.

"TELL ME."

"NO."

"Friday, Friday, getting' down on Friday!" Sirius finally sings, making her drop the scarf and plug her ears. "Partyin', partyin' – YEAH – partyin', partyin' – YEA-AAAAHHHHG! PILLOWS!"

I look and see that James is lazily throwing pillows at him. He swats them away with this crazed look on his face, as if the pillows were a swarm of – I dunno – angry lavender hippos. And yes, I miss Quidly. I've misplaced him and he's cold and alone in the world.

"James, you're my hero," Rylie tells him once Sirius is on the floor and trying to figure out which way is up.

"Yeah, thanks," James smiles a little.

"So what's in the boxes?" I ask, eyeing the three that could contain little kids.

"Huh?" Sirius pops up, his hair flipped over in a strange, crazy comb-over. "Oh, those. Well, that's your homework for Charms, Potions and Transfiguration. Oh, also, you've got to agree or disagree with the Halloween party ideas."

James and I groan as Remus plops gracefully in a chair, shuffling through a few of the papers and holding out some, "Serena and a few of the other girl prefects want a masquerade ball or something."

"It's September," I pout, "I'll worry about Halloween when it's October."

"So…" Sirius scratches his chin, "Tomorrow then?"

I think before groaning and burying my face in a pillow. I hate having to plan for the Halloween party. It's always a pain in my butt, even when I was a prefect. I like the party, sure, I just hate _planning_ for it, you know?

"What did the guys say?" James asks.

"Blood and guts horror theme," Remus shrugs.

"YES," James and Sirius agree. Jeremy chuckles as Peter nods enthusiastically. Rylie is being a bump on the log in a chair by the window.

"Well," I stretch my shoulders out, "What if…we mash them together?"

"Excuse me?" Sirius asks, "I don't want a 'ball.' I want HORROR, Evans."

"Bride of Frankenstein?" Rylie asks, "Empress of Darkness? Undead Bride? I'm in."

I nod, "Like that. The girls get their masquerade bit; the guys get their horror bit. Problem solved. Go do my homework for me."

James chuckled as Rylie got up and walked out the door without another word. Once she was gone, a pillow flew over and hit Jeremy in the face. Sirius 'whoop'ed as everybody else blinked.

"What'd you do to Rylie, Jer?" James asks.

"None of your bloody business," Jeremy frowns back at him. Sirius makes a little "ooooh" sound with his hand up to partially cover his mouth.

"You're my cousin, so it is my business."

"No, it's just between me and Rylie…and later on, apparently, Lily," he walked out the door as Sirius pouted. He was low on social information, I suppose, and now didn't have anything to give to his Gossip Overlords. They would be most displeased.

…

I think I've got a fever.

* * *

><p>Okay, I'll admit, I've never been a perfect student. Lily was that. She got the good grades and the politeness and the ability to make her clothes match. I, however, was surrounded by boys for most of my life, and after my mother was gone I had only them to look after me.<p>

Naturally, I'm a bit of a tomboy.

Okay, I'm not one of those girls who some people can't really tell is a girl. But I don' wear skirts or makeup everyday either. I "go with the flow," you know? But how can I show the ways that I know to go with the flow?

And yes, I totally did that on purpose.

But that's beside the point!

…What was the point again?

Oh, right.

I didn't deserve to be kidnapped.

I had been walking down the hall from breakfast to Potions. I was lame at Potions when Lily wasn't there to help me. And I _would_ go to Remus for help, but he was surrounded by Marauders. Snivelli (and yes, I had taken the mutt's name for him. It seemed fitting) was a definite 'N-O.' So all I had left was Serena, a little red dot in a beacon of yellow.

Which, is to say, she sits with the Hufflepuffs.

Now we always have Potions with Slytherins, but these Hufflepuffs weren't the brightest bulbs in the lamp, but they weren't back a year either. They did some stuff that was underneath us, then they did stuff we hadn't quite done yet.

Wait, I'm off topic.

Ah, yes, the walk from breakfast to Potions.

Now, I hadn't gotten along with the Marauders since first year. James and Sirius called me 'Braceface' until fourth year, even though I was brace-free by the beginning of our second year. Lil says they're "prats," whatever that is. But James started to get nicer to me once I got closer and closer to Jeremy (who is, right now, on my list of people to not talk to.) Padfoot, however, I just want to strangle.

And then the mutt yanks me from the safety of a public hall and into a secret room behind a knight.

Stupid freaking map. I hate that thing. I remember the day they all gathered in the corner of the Gryffindor Common Room to make the freaking thing. Psht. Doesn't have half the things Charlie, Jon and Andrew found while they were at Hogwarts. Kinda glad for that though, in a way. They found some pretty freaky things here.

Someone mutters "lumos" and the little room is filled with light. Remus is holding the map in one hand, Peter is the one with the light, and Sirius is the one I really want to slap.

"Black," I growl, since I'm just absolutely _adorable_ like that, "Explanation in three, two, one – "

"Alright, hear me out before you start hitting me," Black says as he puts Peter between me and him. Pssshhht. I can jump higher than Peter. Remus just watches on, always the calm little spectator. Although Lily said he did get in a bit of an incident with some rogue chess pieces….

"James likes Lily," he says, breaking me from my thoughts of Remus attacking poor, innocent little pawns. Or maybe vise versa.

"Where have you been for the past seven years?" I ask with an eyebrow arched. Really, I was glad for the brain damage and all, but if it was going to be this annoying….

"Lily secretly likes James – we all know it," he continues.

I blink. I thought I had been the one imagining her calling him 'James' and actually being civil. Huh. Looks like I bugged Madame Pomfrey for nothing.

He takes my silence as an urge to continue, "But, at this rate, it won't happen."

He's done something amazing.

He's confused me.

"What?" I ask as Remus checks the map, "What won't happen?"

"_Them_, Jenkins," he tells me this like I'm five, which I don't appreciate since I had recently had the experience if reliving memories but with people in my year replacing other people. (Long story, I might tell you later.)

I stare at him for a second longer before turning to Remus. He doesn't even look up from the map.

"What he's saying is that Lily and James won't happen by the end of seventh year," he supplies.

Ahh, Remus, without you I would never understand your friends. I salute thee!

"So, we need your help, just for a few minutes during – say – Potions," Sirius says.

_Warning, warning, suspicious activity ahead!_ The little red alarm goes off in my brain. If it could, the little red light would shine through my eyeballs and show everyone that I knew what they were up to…sort of.

"Help for what?" I lean back, as if his stupidity might be contagious. Well, you never know.

"We need to know if it would actually work," he huffs, as if I'd just missed his big, long speech about this very subject. "If they'd get married, have children – "

I squinched an eye shut as I tried to picture it. A little black haired boy with green eyes or a redheaded girl with brown eyes. Couldn't picture the parents though. Lily must've killed him and been sent to Azkaban then. Extremely likely, actually.

I frown, looking between all three of them, "So, what exactly would I have to do?"

"Just tell us what Lily likes and doesn't like," Remus said, "And I swear, that'll be it."

"Why couldn't Serena or Alice do this stuff?" I wrinkle up my nose.

"Honestly, you were my last option," Sirius says, "Serena was busying about homework and Alice was off to the Hospital Wing again. Frank inhaled a massive amount of that stupid incense in Divination last class and passed out."

"The same one James is complaining about constantly?" _And Jeremy thinks smells like his aunt's pudding?_ But of course I don't say that. That would be bringing him into our conversation. And I don't want him in my conversation.

"The very same."

I sigh, "Fine. I'll do it, but I won't like it."

"Excellent," Sirius grins before knocking on a brick three times. Out pops another doorway, down a hall, "Follow us to Potions!" Then he grabs my arm and begins to tug me down the dark hall as he begins to yarble on about – what was it? – chess, I think.

Merlin, kill me.


	6. Stupid Notes and Stupider Bets

I _love_ my room.

My bed is a four poster one, but with spring green drapes, and my comforter is sea green, and then the carpet is this nice light blue. Over past the bed is the wardrobe, and to the left of that is a window seat with a secret compartment under the cushion. To the wall to the right of the door is my cabinet, where I put various knick-knacks. Stuff from home, stuff from my birthdays over the years, a few books, pajamas, socks. And then to the left of that is the door to the bathroom, which I don't have to share with older sisters who are content with putting on copious amounts of makeup as their little sisters' bladders explode.

Like I said, I _love_ my room.

But the person I have to share the dorm with is a different matter at hand.

_He_ likes to play music that distracts me from reading a book on my window seat. Very loud music. That is actually kind of catchy.

_As Manson walked forward to investigate the – _

_**Now that she's back in the atmosphere – **_

_the glass cabinet, he realized that – _

_**with Drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey-ey-ey-ey. Hey-ey-ey-ey.**_

_that the culprit had – _

_**She acts like summer and walks like rain, reminds me that there's a time to change, hey-ey-ey-ey. Hey-ey-ey-ey.**_

_had left a – _

_**Since the return of her stay on the moon, she listens like spring and she talks like June, hey-ey-ey. Hey-ey-ey.**_

_had left a smudged fingerprint that – _

_**But tell me, did you sail across the sun, did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded and that heaven is overrated?**_

_that later revealed to be – _

_**Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star, one without a permanent scar and did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?**_

…How can a shooting star have a scar? How did it get it? Was it fighting other innocent little shooting stars?

And yes, I have given up on reading.

I sigh and get up, going over to my cabinet and setting the book there and instead picking up a notebook. Going back to the window seat, I flip through some of the pages. Most of them are doodles, a few doodles that progressed into drawings, a few scenes where Rylie and I collaborated drawing a few girls we don't like over the lake, notes that had never gotten ripped out or some that had been taped there because they were too funny to throw out. For example, one from third year in the fall:

_I don't like this class_, I had written before sliding it discreetly over to Rylie, Serena on her other side as Alice napped. Binns wasn't watching anyway.

**Ditto**, Rylie had written.

_**I want to be a ninja like Lily when I grow up!**_ Serena had been smiling at us as if this totally made sense.

_What?_ Since when had I been a ninja?

_**You just totally slid this notebook over here so stealthily, Lily. That takes skills!**_

**Ahem, misprint! S-K-I-L-L-****Z****. But yes, Lily, you have ninja skillz. **

_Why, thank you. It took a lot of time to master._

**I bet. Paid off, I think.**

_**Yes. Can you throw those star things? I love those!**_

_No. My sensei took them away from me. :(_

**Shame, Grasshopper. Would've been nice to hear the sound Potter's head made when the air deflated.**

_**Your sensei's a meanie, Lily.**_

_I know. He's gone to the dark side, I'm afraid._

**Oh GAWD, tell me we are NOT venturing into **_**Star Wars**_** territory! I deal enough with that at home AND here! I wish Andrew would leave – me - ALONE.**

_**But…the force…it is strong!**_

_Hmmm, seems mad is Rylie._

**Subject change! My mom sent me something today in the mail.**

_**Awww, how thoughtful!**_

_Yes, thoughtful it seems!_

**Stop it, Evans. It was a dress….**

…_**Ohh…ummm…**_

_Only your mum could get away with sending you a dress._

**I ****know****! But I'm going to change it to my liking…:) (PS – no Yoda?)**

_**Oh Merlin, Rylie!**_

_Oh Lord, not again! (PS – that was too long of a sentence for me to change.)_

**Yes again! What was wrong with the last time?**

_**Your mum stopped by.**_

_And saw you._

**Well…yeah, but…**

_**Just stop it, honestly, behave.**_

…_You __have__ met her siblings, right Serena?_

**I can't behave! Especially not when she expects me to be like her!**

_**What's wrong with her?**_

_Ooh, ooh, I know, I know! Pick me!_

**Lily?**

_She's not Rylie. :) _

**Very good, Miss Evans. You get a cookie.**

_**I want a cookie….**_

_Whoop! And you don't get one 'cause you didn't know the answer. Whoop!_

…**I'm afraid we lost her Serena.**

_**I'm afraid so…this one's funner though.**_

**I know. Let's keep her.**

_Hey! The original is best!_

**Says you. I think you could lighten up a bit.**

_**Yup.**_

_Oh really? How? _

…**I am **_**SO**_** glad you just asked that! :D**

_**Whoo!**_

_I have a bad feeling about this…._

* * *

><p>"LILY! LILY!" I screamed as I popped open her door, startling her from looking at a notebook, "HELP ME, LILY, HELP ME!"<p>

She looks confused for a minute, "With what?"

Her answer comes when James notices that it's gone, as am I, "SIRIUS ORION BLACK!"

"Oohhhh," she looks at me dully now, "What'd you do?"

Instead I rush over to her and pick her up, holding her in front of me to face James as I toss the object behind my back. James comes into the room, glaring at me as I look innocently at him.

"Morning, Prongs. Nice day, huh?" I smile.

"Give it back," he keeps glaring at me.

"Now, now, James," I tsk, "Your face will get stuck like that if you're not careful."

"Give it back, it's not funny!"

"Oh contraire, Monsieur Potter," I grin as I reach over and bring Lily closer to me, as she just tried to walk off, "It _is_ funny."

He continues to glare at me, his wand in his hand as Lily tries to process what's going on.

"I didn't know you were such a coward, Padfoot," James frowns, "Using Evans as a shield was beneath you, I thought."

I start laughing as Lily finds out that I _have_ been using her as a shield.

"I was wondering why you were so grabby!" she yelled at me before pushing away from me. She stands in between the two of us, "Whatever it is you want to kill him about, I don't care as long as you let me help you."

"Lily!" I gasp, "That offends!"

"So does using me as a freaking _shield_," she glares at me. That's come to bite me in the arse, I see.

"Alright, I tried doing my homework!" Jenkins says as she steps in to the room, "But I just couldn't stay fo-…why are you mad at Black?"

"He took something of mine," James growls. Oh dear. We've ventured into growling territory. I am _dead._

"He used me as a shield," Lily is frowning. Alright, I've got a bit of hope with this one. She isn't in death glare territory.

"Oh come on," Jenkins rolls her eyes, "I know he's an idiot and all, but that isn't cause for you to kill him."

Everybody stopped and looked at her, making her look at us funny.

"Well?" she pouts, "'Innocent before proven guilty,' right?"

Lily reaches over to her bed, grabs a pillow, and throws it at her with as much force as she can. Rylie screams and flinches back.

"You are not Rylie!" Lily yells before throwing another one at her, "What did you do with her?"

"Lily!" she whines as she flinches away from another one, "C'mon! I really need to talk to you and I can't do so with you throwing pillows at me!"

She purses her lips before throwing another one at her randomly, making her shriek and bat it away. I roll my eyes and shake my head as I usher James out of the room. And yes, I just used the word 'usher.' Back off, it's my head anyway!

"C'mon, let's go so they can talk," I tell him.

"What's with you?" he asks. Good. He's forgotten that he's mad at me.

"Oh, nothing. Say, wanna go walk around on the grounds?" I suggest.

"Sure," he shrugs before frowning, "I feel like I'm forgetting something."

"Dunno," I shrug at him before trying to scurry out the portrait hole before he remembers.

* * *

><p>I sigh as I pick up one of Lily's pillows that she just tried to murder me with and hold it to my chest, sitting down on her bed and watching as she picks up the remainder of the pillows and shuts the door.<p>

"Alright," she says as she sits down next to me, "What's up?"

Ever since my mom died, Lily, Serena and Alice have been trying to step in for that position while I was at school. Penelope fills in when I'm at home, although they just…they stink at it. None of them are my mom. But they try, and that's what matters, I guess.

"It's Jer," I tell her.

"Really?" she says sarcastically, "I had no clue!"

"Shut up so I can tell you," I frown before sighing, "I…I actually want us to get married, Lily."

"Yay! Oh, I'm sorry, carry on," she grins sheepishly.

"But he keeps saying that we're too young and not ready and blah-blah-blah. At first I just shrugged it off and thought he said what he meant, but now…."

"Rylie, we've gone over this," she says gently, "He loves _you_. Certainly not Gretchen Longstring or Sylvia Hob or anybody else. Boys are just…complex creatures. What was it you said in the fourth year, when you started dating Jeremy and you had your first fight?"

"All I remember was that it was during History of Magic."

She gets up and goes over to the window seat and grabs a notebook before flipping through the pages as she walks back to me. She stops halfway though, staring down at the notebook and frowning.

"What is it?" I ask.

"This isn't mine. Look," she gets closer and sits back down and I find that it's extremely sloppy handwriting, slightly improved sloppy handwriting and okay handwriting.

"Black, Jeremy and Potter," I frown, "But like, when they were younger." I grab it from her and begin to read, having her look over my shoulder.

_**I don't want to talk to you guys!**_

_Come on, Cousin! We're fun!_

**Yes, quite!**

_**Go bug Remus or Peter or someone.**_

**Bah, Remus keeps shoving the paper back towards us and glaring before going back to taking notes.**

_**As I should be doing.**_

_But you wouldn't even if we left you alone (which we won't do) because you were looking at Ryyyyylliiiiieeee. _

_**Oh shut up! You were staring at Lily!**_

_*GASP* You promised you wouldn't speak of it!_

**You two sicken me. Why I talk to you two, I don't know. **

_**Saw you looking at Rylie once in third year.**_

**I WAS NOT! THERE WAS SOMEONE BEHIND HER I WAS LOOKING AT!**

_He got all __defensive__, Cousin._

'_**Prolly 'cause I'm **__**right**__**, Cousin.**_

_Indeed._

**I don't like Jenkins. You can have her, Jerms. **

_**Quit calling me Jerms, Sinus.**_

_Bwaha. :) _

**Sinus? SINUS? DO YOU KNOW HOW GROSS THAT IS? I AM NOT SINUSES. THAT IS SO DISGUSTING.**

_He's actually laughing at that. Thank Merlin that Binns can drone on and on for hours with no interruptions, or else we'd be in trouble._

_**You're Sinus as long as I'm Jerms.**_

**But…but…you've got to have a nickname!**

_Jerry?_

_**Call me that and I will kill you.**_

_Jermson? _

_**WtfwhatisthatIdon'teven…**_

_JERMSIE._

**Jermsie and Jamsie. I like it.**

…_NEVERMIND._

_**How 'bout you call me Jeremy?**_

**That's not a nickname.**

_OOH, OOH, OOH, I HEARD RYLIE CALL HIM 'HUN' ONCE!_

_**JAMES!**_

**Excellent! :D**

_**Now hold up! She called you "Chicky" once, James!**_

"**Chicky," "Hun?" Where does Jenkins even come up with these?**

_**Her mum used to call her those…**_

…_It's a shame what happened to her mum. Couldn't she have gone to St. Mungo's for that?_

**No. Jenkins said that her brothers were off on errands when it happened. And she was a Muggle so….**

_**Rylie didn't need that. She didn't need her mum dying.**_

_We know._

…**I'm going to predict something.**

_**Oh Merlin, here we go….**_

**I predict that Jeremy shall ask Rylie to marry him before our seventh year is done.**

_Seconded!_

**In fact, let's turn this into a little bet. If it does happen, then you owe us a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.**

_**Oh Merlin, I hate those. And I highly doubt she can put up with me for three more years.**_

**In which case, we'll owe you a case of Chocolate Frogs.**

…_**Deal.**_

_Psssst. If you get the Arnold Wiflinger card, will you give it to me? I need him to complete my Quidditch Players Chocolate Frog Card collection._

_**Alright.**_

**And if James doesn't get Lily to go out with him before seventh year, he gets us a case of sugar quills. If he does, we'll get him…something.**

_I will only take this bet just to prove the two of you wrong. Lily Evans __will__ admit that she loves me before our years at Hogwarts are done._

_**Alright…can you quit moving and just let the paper wads Lily throws at you hit you? I've got enough paper cuts on my face! Nobody squeeze a lemon or so help me - !**_

_Evans! Just answer the freaking notes!_

**I think she has. Did you unfold them?**

…_GIMME!_

**DON'T GIVE HIM ANY!**

_**SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT, BINNS IS LOOKING THIS WAY, QUICK STUFF THE PAPER IN YOUR PACK!**_

**CRAAAAAAAAAP HE'S TOO BUSY LOOKING AT THE NOTES. **

_**JAMES, FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN, **__**PLEASE!**_

"I guess he put the paper up," I mumble before standing up and walking out of Lily's room, still holding the paper in my hand.

"Wait, Rylie, where are you going?" she asks as she follows me out the portrait hole and down the stairs, "Rylie, wait, please, where on Earth are you going?"

But I won't tell her. Because then she'll try to talk me out of it. That's how our relationship works. I think of something insane to do and she tries to talk me out of it. But if I really want to do something insane, then I don't tell her. But if she thinks of something insane, I'm all for it. Aaaah, friendship.

Suddenly I'm on the grounds, looking around for them. Although I hardly need to. They're always at that stupid tree by the lake. I don't get why they like that tree so much. But James is sitting there with his tongue rolled out, trying to remember something, it looks like. Sirius is on the other side of the tree, looking like he's ready to bolt at any minute. Remus is sitting in between them and writing something – probably homework I've forgotten all about. And then he's there as well, sitting in front of James as he talks to him, playing with some grass.

I walk over to him and Lily suddenly acts like I'm completely mental.

"Oh Rylie, don't you _dare!_" she says as she walks with me, "If you're going to do what I think you're going to do – "

"Chill," I tell her, "Be Ice-Ice, Baby." I've been saying this a lot lately, so much that it's gotten on her nerves, so she groans and falls back a few steps. It's actually really cheesy, I just say it to annoy the crap out of her. And it works. Anyway –

Jeremy sees me coming and stands up, trying to study my expression as I get closer and closer to him. I frown at him for a few minutes before holding up the paper and arching my eyebrow.

"So…let me get this straight…you won't marry me…because you want some Chocolate Frogs?" I ask.

He turns red slightly, "Oooohhhh, crap. Listen, Rylie – "

"Hey," I hold up my hands, "I'm certainly not one to judge. Lily and I have an ongoing bet that involves Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Mrs. Norris and a handful of those disgusting little grey colored beans."

Lily laughs and I grin, both of us remembering the last time we did that. Merlin, that was fun.

"SIRIUS, I WILL KILL YOU!" James is suddenly running across the grounds, the paper waving in his hand as he chases Black, "YOU PRACTICALLY GAVE IT TO THE GIRLS, YOU LITTLE – "

"_SO_ – " Jeremy coughs loudly to block out a few of the words, "Are you still mad at me?"

"A little," I purse my lips, but it fails since I've still got that image in my mind, "But mostly at Black for coming up with something as stupid as that."

"Soooo…" Lily steps into our conversation, "Are we all good now?"

Jeremy leans over and hugs me and I've gotta grin, "Of course. After all, we were set up by the infamous Lily Evans and James Potter. We wouldn't break up so easily."

Lily groans and I laugh. He's really been hanging around his cousin too much.

When we were in our fourth year, I was still depressed from when my mum – oh crap, I did it again – my _mom_ died. Andrew had finished his seventh year, and now I was alone in Hogwarts. Ever since I'd been in Hogwarts, at least one of my brothers was there. And, I dunno, I just felt more alone then when they were all gone.

Lily had walked up to me during dinner and slammed her books down on the table with as much force as she could. This freaked me out, since Lily is _'mgonnadie_-scary when she's mad. She looked me straight in the eye and said, "I know you're sad. But I want my best friend back. I've set you up on a date for the next Hogsmeade trip." She then sat down next to me with no further answer, grabbed a banana from in front of us and put it down on my plate.

So for a week I followed her around and complained and protested. She just kept smiling, since this was something I usually did when she did something I didn't like. During the Hogsmeade trip, she sat there with me in the Three Broomsticks, making sure I didn't run off. James and Jeremy came walking in, Jeremy looking as if he would've loved to grab a spoon from a nearby table and stab James with it. (Trust me, you can stab people with spoons if you try hard enough. Ask Charlie and Jon.) They walked over to our table and James grinned at Lily.

"'Ello, girls," he said, "Mind if we join you?"

I opened my mouth to tell him to beat it when Lily did a very _un_Lily-ish thing.

"Not at all," she smiled. Jeremy and I gave each other funny looks as they slid into the booth opposite us. After a few minutes of talking, Lily and James suddenly "remembered" that they had to be somewhere and left us alone with the promise that they'd be right back.

I think we sat there for a few minutes before realizing that they weren't coming back. We sat there for a few extra minutes before putting two and two together and getting four. Which, is to say, we figured out we were each other's dates.

We sat there the whole time complaining about our choice of friends. Although he really didn't have a choice, considering they were related. Well, no, not the whole time. We talked about loved ones passing on. His father died when he was seven, and then it was just him and his mom. He'd go over to James's house a lot when his mom had a date.

And I dunno. Something clicked. We started hanging out a lot more. And then somebody asked us if we were dating and we kind of shrugged and said "I guess, why not?"

I just love how that happened. No kiss, no heartfelt, touching speech. It was just like "Hey, you wanna go out?", "Pfft, sure, why not?"

I'm pulled back into reality when Lily's voice finally breaks through.

" – appreciate it if you would quit saying it like that, you make it sound like we're together or something," she frowns.

"Ummmm…" Jeremy frowns, "Is that a bad thing?"

"Yes."

"No," I say, "Well, just for Lily, seeing as she's totally in denial."

She gapes at me and I grin, "What? Did I guess right? You guys were talking about James, right?"

"Yeah," Jeremy grins at me, "And you're right."

"If you weren't Rylie's boyfriend, I'd totally take out your shin," Lily tells him with a glare.

"Oooh, watch out now," I tease, "Lily's all ninja now! Whuuu!"

She smirks, "Back off Jenkins, I'm a pain master."

"Oh yeah. Slipping and falling and breaking your wrist. Yeah. Way to show that floor, Evans!"

"Ugh, shut up!" she wrinkles her nose and glares at me.

"What're you gonna do?" I smirk, "Fall on me?"

"…That's an excellent idea," she grins as she takes a step forward. I take a step back. I've known Lily for seven years. I know that yes, she will tackle me to the ground.

But only if she can catch me.

So I take off, promising Jeremy that I'll talk to him later as Lily runs after me. We run around the whole grounds, and I'm thankful that its fall or else I'd be dying by now.

And then I smack into James.

And then Lily trips over us.

And then Black stops and laughs at us before running off.

We are now in a sandwich.

I don't like being in a sandwich. Especially since Lily can't see which way is up or down with her hair obscuring her view, and I'm left with James poking his elbow into my ribs. Aaaagggggghhh.

"Owwww, what hit me?" James asks since his glasses have flown over a few feet. They actually caught some good air, if you ask me.

"Us," Lily and I answer together as she sits up and pushes her hair back.

"Aaaaggghhh," James mutters as I finally am free from his elbow-prodding, "Who hit me first?"

"Rylie," Lily says as she tries to rearrange her hair. She's failing miserably, by the way.

"Merlin, Jenkins," he moans as he sits up, "What're you, a freight train?"

I frown at him. Had we been standing, I would've kicked him in the knee. Lily and I have done that to the Marauders since we can remember, in case you're wondering.

"Oh shut up," I say before I'm tackled to the ground by an insane redhead.

And yes, that insane redhead is my best friend.

"LILY!" I scream as she sits on top of my back, playing with my hair. We're so loony sometimes, honestly.

"Yes?" she says slowly.

"Get the freak off of me."

"Mmkay," she says before taking her time and digging her knees into my back. I stand up and glare at her as James finds his glasses and puts them back on.

Oh she's gonna pay.

Big time.

"Alright," I say, "Fine. We're even now."

"Good," she smiles.

I walk past her a little before stopping and shoving her into James. They fall on the ground again, only this time in a _very_ embarrassing position. They only stay like that for a few seconds though before Lily jumps up and I've got to run again.

I laugh as I run, probably looking like a nut. I look back and laugh at her, her face is bright red from embarrassment.

But she loves me anyway.

…

I _think_.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Drops of Jupiter<strong>_** belongs to Train. :)**


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